What’s it all about?

Whatever is happening in your life, you stand a better chance of coping if your body and your mind are in a good shape. If you have a little extra coping to do, like this bunch, it is vitally important.

It is not everybody’s idea of fun to cycle 1000 miles, but yet again, it might just turn some heads (and minds) around… including yours.

So we are organising a campaigning cycle ride to

– Have fun….Cancer is deadly serious, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have serious fun with it

– Because we are able to

– To preserve sanity (although you might think it is all a bit loopy)

But most of all

– To tell the world and ourselves, that you can live well with cancer because cancer is part of our lives not our whole life.

– To highlight the need for services for people who would like to keep active and/or make lifestyle changes in the course of dealing with cancer to maintain their quality of life and to aid recovery

I can’t believe this. Well, actually, I can. I’ve read so much stuff about keeping fit and active during cancer treatment. I think that’s fine if it suits you. Personally, while I was on chemo, I had all the side effects going. The steroids made me feel awful and I had to pack them in. Then I got so fatigued I just couldn’t get up off the couch for weeks at a time. It’s nearly five years now since my diagnosis, and I’m still not fit enough to ride a bike more than a few yards. If only I could get some realistic support to improve my fitness, I’d be thrilled. Good luck to you guys. Enjoy the ride.

I agree the most important thing is to get support to suit individual needs when it comes to exercise (and nutrition). The Ride is about raising awareness and get the decision making bodies to provide services, so we can live better and longer. I know it is not possible for everybody nor everybody’s idea of fun to cycle 1000 miles but people can join in for as long or as little.

This looks great Reka, when I met you the other week you motivated me to maintain fitness through my treatment. I have got the book ‘cancer fitness’ from the library and have a little exercise plan – walking!
I will be following the Ride with interest – hope you have booked the ice baths!

Hi Rachel, It’s so hard isn’t it to find informed support. Lots around if you want to lose weight but if you’ve had cancer, many professionals don’t really understand and are a bit scared to advise. I’ve just finished chemo (round 3) this time for 9 sessions and had some nasty side effects. I tried to walk every day on the beach for about 4 miles. Maybe partly psychological but I know the days I didn’t manage to walk, the effects of chemo, steroids etc seemed so much worse! I’m going to do ‘some’ of the ride, possibly only half day sessions.. I am very unfit and unused to any kind of hill cycling but there’s no competitive element or sense of having to push ourselves harder than we want to… thanks for your good wishes and keep trying to find the programme that’s right for you!

Having worked in sport for 20 years I know what a beneficial effect serious exercise can have, mentally and spiritually as well as physically, but wow – this really is serious! I wish you every bit of luck – it will be hard, but it will also be great, in every way.

well, for those of you who thought we had gone very quiet, it’s been a busy time! Reka has been in Australia and I’ve been in France, but we’re back and ready to move onto the next step of raising some more sponsorship, thinking about press and media contacts, making sure all our day and country riders are growing. Reka and I met today and began to think about our tasks for the next few weeks. We welcome anyone who wants and thinks they might be able to help us in any way… either with contacts, funding, accomodation, transport…. please don’t worry anyone about levels of fitness and stamina. It may be that we all do part of the ride rather than all of us do all of it, but ‘the ride’ will be completed, however many of us it takes!!

BTW Sport Cam have a charity page: ‘If you are involved in a charity event that is planning to use our camera systems then please drop us an email so that we can feature you on this page! charity@sport-cam.co.uk‘

Good luck to penny and friends. Just finished reading Lucia perillo’s ‘happiness is a chemical in the brain’ and would highly recommend. What a feisty woman! Now if it would only stop raiining in cork I would get up on that bike!

hello Ann… will need lots of luck. Now you know rain in Cork is never an excuse to not getting on your bike!! I think you should organise a group of inspirational women like you and join us for at least a day in Dublin! miss you and hopefully get to Cork before the summer’s out or at least early Autumn…. biggest hugs.. penny x x x